Gang Leader Charged With Murder For PLG Hookah Lounge Shooting

On Monday, feds charged a notorious Eight Trey Crips gang leader with murder for a 2015 hookah bar shooting in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, according to court records.

Larry Pagett, 37, (aka “Biz” “Biz Loc” and “Molotovbizzz”) was charged with murder in-aid-of racketeering for shooting down a rival gang member inside a crowded Brooklyn lounge, according to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Pagett was a leader of the Eight Trey Crips gang, according to the indictment. On August 28, 2015, he shot and killed rival Chrispine Philip (aka “Droppa”) inside the Buda Hookah Lounge (Ali’s Roti Shop during the day), wounding three bargoers with stray bullets. Surveillance video from the Buda Hookah Lounge shows Pagett pulling out a gun and shooting Philip several times in the back and in the head as he was running away.

He shot Philip to elevate his gang status, according to court records.

“The deadly shooting happened inside of a crowded lounge, injuring several others in the shooting, and several more with the panic that ensued,” said NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill. “Today’s indictment reinforces the message that law enforcement is committed to fighting gun violence and gang activity wherever and whenever we find it.”

If convicted, the defendant faces mandatory life imprisonment.

According to NYPD data from 2015, there are at least 130 gangs in Brooklyn, more than any other borough. And this isn’t the first arrest of Crips gang members in central Brooklyn. In 2015, feds arrested twenty alleged gang members accused of terrorizing the East Flatbush area.